There's both good news and bad news....
Y'all are so funny! Your guesses on the reason for my exuberance were hilarious but my favorite goes to Madge who wrote:
"Hmm, I'm guessing your parole has ended and you don't have to wear that pesky ankle bracelet any longer. :D"
Cute Madge, very cute!
I wish many of your guesses were correct (new computer, lottery win and world knitting tour with the P-Man all sound great to me!) There were a few of you who got the right answer so let's unravel the tale, shall we?
Here we have my Forest Path Stole. Isn't she lovely?
I love her color and the pattern is much easier than it looks....the kind of pattern that has the world thinking you're a Knitting Goddess when you're really just a warshcloth knittin' chick :)
The bad news is, this fluffy knitter wont be knitting even ONE MORE STITCH on her! Actually that is both good and bad news, heh.
Here's the story....
I learned to knit when I was 8 and knit pretty steadily until I moved to Florida in 1989 (no LYS, knitting was passe and it's HOT here!) That hiatus lasted until about 5 years ago when I was surfing the net looking a hobby for "stress management" (HAR.)
In those 15 years the Internet had been born and knitting had a PRESENCE!! So I came back to knitting with a vengeance but also with quite a bit of experience under my belt, or so I thought.
After getting my feet wet I jumped in with
Bottom line? I tossed the mess across the room and almost gave up knitting for another 15 years! I picked other projects and things went much better, my skills improving with each new FO. I chalked up that failure to my 15 year lapsed muscle memory and once I got my chops back, I evolved into the semi-goddess knitter I am today :)
What I didn't realize, until this February, is the problem with that long ago stole wasn't so much with my knitting sabbatical and atrophied knitting skills but that I LOATHE KNITTING WITH LACEWEIGHT YARN! Yes, there, I said it! Whew! Do I have to hand in my Knitter's Secret Decoder Ring now? hehe!
Gimme some fingering weight yarn and a set of size 0 DPNs and I'll knit you the Brooklyn Bridge but me and laceweight, not so much!
Yes I've knit shawls since that fubar fiasco 5 years ago but always in fingering weight or above. Either it was what the pattern called for or I was upsizing for fluffy me by subbing a heavier yarn for laceweight.
So.....I blithely sign up as co-hostess of the FPS KAL, not realizing that knitting with laceweight yarn makes me want to poke my own eyes out with my Addi Lace needles :) And I get to loathe all 2700 yards of it!! YIKES!!
So me and the FPS, I'm just not into her.....
Now for the good news! I'm giving her away!!! YAY! A contest!!
I'm giving my FPS away as is, so if you've always wanted to knit the Forest Path Stole, think of this as your way of getting a six tier head start! It's such a shame to waste all that pretty knitting and I would love for someone who isn't adverse to knitting with laceweight yarn to complete the stole and give it the love it deserves.
If you want to knit the FPS, but would rather every stitch be your own, or if you just want about 2000 yards of Juniper colored Zephyr wool/silk yarn after you *snip snip* what I've already knit , the yarn will be yours, do with it what you will....just DON'T tell me, please! I'm sad enough already. (I would be thrilled to know if you do knit the stole with my "head start" however!)
As I said, the pattern is easier than it looks but it is a BIG project! The lace is quite easy and the finished product is stunning....just head over to the KAL blog** and see for yourself! And as I said in my last FPS post, the Addi Lace needles are so fabulous with this yarn, they almost made me reconsider my decision to part company with the FPS! (but even they are not that good!)
So how can you make the FPS (and/or the yarn) your own, you ask?
Why a contest of course!! It's simple, all you have to do is leave a comment sharing your biggest knitting
You have until this Sunday, June 10th and then I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner. So dish up your juiciest stories and win yourself a Forest Path Stole of your very own! Even Pumpkin says you should....
58 comments:
I feel your pain. I'm feeling that way about lace weight yarn right now. I've told my husband that it will never happen again. Please help me keep that vow. *laugh*
I don't have a disaster yet -- but I haven't been knitting all that long. I've had lots of things not quite work out and I've been known to push on when I really should frog, but...
I'm glad you've decided to free yourself from the (flower) path you were walking. Life is too short to knit what you don't want to knit.
I would say you are pretty much past even the semi-goddess knitter realm. You could possibly even be the Queen of Fingering Weight if you like...
As for the lace weight, you are preacing to the choir on that one... I hate it right along with you!!!
Well you know I would never ever make the FPS even with the 6 tier head start, so if your random number generator picks me, you can sure as heck bet I'll be unravelling every shred of that gorgeous zephyr for my own nefarious purposes!
But I thought it would make you happy to hear my biggest knitting disaster. Once I thought I would cleverly resize a man's sweater pattern for myself by using finer yarn and smaller needles. And that's it. No other mods. The pattern was allover 2x2 rib so I figured it'd be stretchy in all the right places and so on. So I used a black 4-ply yarn and 3mm needles and I knitted on the one project for several months. (I was a one-project-at-a-time knitter back then.) And then I blocked it. And then I seamed it ALL up. Sleeve seams and everything. And THEN I tried it on. Guess what. Everything fit just fine except one minor thing - there was NO increase for the chest circumference. I had basically knitted myself a tiny man's sweater.
I have yet to blog about this sad fact. (It all occurred in the bad old pre-blog days. If I'd been blogging back then, surely someone would have commented and told me I was heading for disaster!) The jumper is still sitting in my stash. Every once in a while I get the brilliant idea to frog it and make something better. We'll see. I keep getting distracted by newer, prettier, yarns!
Hmmmmmm disaster? which disaster? I'll have to go check the frog pond and get back to you on which is the most stunning.
I think it might be the cabled beauty that was thick enough to stand on its own ... the cute little bolero jacket in copper manos yarn (just too heavy for the knit) ... no maybe the gorgeous, oh-it-fit-soooo well knit from the bottom up beautiful (second sweater ever made) icelandic yoke cardigan, with old Lopi yarn - with droopy front openings and it was too long. Yes, that one. I still miss it. I wish there had been an internet then, someeone could have advised me how to fix it. As the second sweater/second ITEM ever knitted, I just didn't have a clue. Its been through the washer a zillion times and felted and "pillowed". I just couldn't bear to rip it out.
I applaud your ability to call it quits and know your limits. (If only I'd known when to quit!!)
Glad you pulled the trigger on this one. Too much hand-wringing to make it worthwhile - even if you'd plowed through to the end.
BTW, I've got no pictures. Just me?
My biggest disaster so far has been getting lost half-way through a Peacock Feather shawl. It's still waiting for me to decode it. I think I have probably progressed far enough to figure it out, but other knitting deadlines keep me busy on other projects.
And yes, I would finish your shawl. To quote Donkey (in Shreck) "Pick me, pick me!"
Hmm. The first comment didn't show up. Let's try again, this is a contest after all. My biggest knitting disaster is probably my Everyday Cardigan. I love it but it's about an inch too short. I have the yarn to fix it but I'm intimidated and afraid to try. Give me lace weight yarn and charts any day instead!
Is Kids Silk Haze laceweight yarn? I hate that stuff! I have tried knitting 3 projects with it and CANNOT do it. It could be the lack of good needles though :D I guess wooden ones just wont cut it. I tried the Twilight lace wrap from IK, it, too, was throw across the room.
The first thing I made after scarves and washcloths was a purple lion homespun poncho. It makes me look 50 pounds heavier and was the splittiest yarn ever.
Color me perplexed. How can anyone not love laceweight yarn with an overwhelming passion that borders on the obsessive??? Sigh. I guess you need to know when to fold 'em. Anyway, my biggest disaster unfortunately involves laceweight. About 15 years ago I designed and made a traditional shetland shawl. I worked on it for a year, starting it on a trip to England and putting love in every stitch. Several years ago I took it out to photograph for my blog and noticed three HOLES in it!! I don't know if it was the dreaded m""ths or what, but I was (and remain) devastated. Someday I will try to fix it - maybe. But a whole wad of juniper colored Zephyr would sure ease the pain.
Sad for you but YAY for the rest of us!
My disaster? It's kinda sad, too, but I'll keep it short.
I wanted to knit my brother a jumper for his birthday in December 2003. I started it (top-down) and got going. Then my grandfather had a massive stroke and I went to be with my grandmother. I knit on this jumper the whole time I was there.
It was then I realised it was hideous and I wasn't doing it any favours.
Skip a few months ahead and I'd decided to make my dad a jumper with the yarn. I doubled it to make it into a chunky-weight and knit like a demon. I cast off just in time for Christmas 2004.
It was too bulky, the arms were too tight on the wrists, it was too short in the torso, too wide in the body and the hem rolled up.
My dad faked it. I was devastated. I don't see it any more. :(
I am a newbie knitter so my stories aren't nearly as sad as everyone else's. I think my biggest frustration was with the Monkey socks. I kept trying to knit them inside out and I would catch myself knitting them weird so I'd rip it out and start it the exact same way again!
5th time's a charm :P
See, not nearly as entertaining. But its fun to get the frustration out.
My biggest knitting disaster is with sweaters for my husband. He wants me to knit him one very badly but I've knit two sweaters. The first was horribly small. I had no idea about gauge or size and the second is all weird shaped. I've given up. I knit my sun a sweater but that's about it. Give me laceweight shawls anyday. I've knit Icarus and knitting Madli with beads right now. One day my goal is to definitely knit the Forest Path Stole. That was the pattern that hooked my onto lace shawls. I love them.
The Queen of Hearts Bikini Top from Stitch n bitch. Almost enough said.
I upsized it for my upsized body, but really, is a knit string bikini for a girl like me? Magic 8 Ball says no, and so does the mirror.
My biggest knitting disaster was a beautiful aran afghan I knit when I was first married (my new husband worked nights). I knew nothing about wool versus acrylic. I worked on it for months, cast off, admired it and threw it in the washer. Yea, it was wool. I cried.
Hey, I'm sure your yarn and square stole would be able to find a good home. Just one thing, your pictures don't show when I read this morning.
Biggest knitting disaster? Clapotis in Caron Rainbow Dreams (NASTY) acrylic! OMG. Who would WANT to knit on that very long..???
It got frogged well after it should have and the yarn sent to someone who'd appreciate it (the colors are the only fantastic thing about that yarn!)
Umm...does this mean you're giving up your lace NEEDLES?? lol
(no, I know better, you'll still use them with fingering weight, right?)
LOLOL
(and btw...for some reason, I cannot see ANY of the photos - I got the dreaded "Red X" boxes instead!)
And it's okay if you hate laceweight - I just was praying you hadn't decided to leave knit-blogging...I'd miss you and the P-Man too much!
(((hugs)))
Well, I hate to admit there have been many disasters but the funniest one had to be this hat. You can read about it here: www.divaknitting.com/blog/?p=100
I'm glad to hear that your big surprise is that you are no longer knitting on FPS and laceweight. I've been collecting laceweight yarns and truly hope that I don't hate knitting with it. It would be difficult to give up the yarn, that's for sure!
Hmm, biggest knitting disappointment, that's hard to say. I've had some projects where I wasn't exactly thrilled, but not necessarily disappointed. Ohh, after careful consideration, I definitely have a disappointment which was my Tempting sweater. Knit out of inelastic yarn in 2x2 ribbing, it was not fun to finish. Once done, I really didn't like how the sweater looked, it wasn't that great for my body type and in subsequent washings the sweater has bagged out. I plan to rip out the sweater and reclaim the yarn. I no longer even wear it.
Hmmm... someone ate my comment.
I'm so glad that you stopped working on that lace. No point in knitting something that you're not enjoying.
No photos here, either, btw. :?
I am currently working on my biggest knitting mistake. A shawl for my mother for her birthday. Using two strands of baby alpaca lace weight held together. The color of the yarn is pretty much "dryer lint". As soon as I thought how I was getting bored doing the same lace chart over and over again, I made an error... that I didn't notice for a few rows. I've had to tink over a thousand stitches to get back to the error to fix it. This is not a shawl that is having love and happiness knit into it. This is a shawl that I cannot finish soon enough.
Oh, and I know she won't like it, so that makes it all the more fun. /sigh
No pictures, not since P-Man Live, and maybe shortly before. But it could be the Feds, keeping them from me here at the office!
Anyway, to the biggest disaster. I was still a newbie knitter, and trying to knit my sister a Fair Isle sweater. It shrunk (in the Fair Isle section) about 4 inches in width, and I didn't do anything about it, so of course it didn't fit!
Haven't tried Fair Isle since, but I will again someday!
My dad asked me to make a sweater for him. I am not a new knitter but the kicker here is my dad lives in NYC and I live in Canada. I blindly went along and designed my own pattern. I used Sidna Farely's Seamless Sweaters book and away I went. I asked dad to give me the chest measurements from his favourite sweater. I had a very good time knitting it. I was so proud when it was done. I mailed it off to NYC and dad received it. Dad told me he loved it. Then dad tried it on and asked me if I thought he had monkey arms. The sleeves were way too long. So I ended up passing the sweater along to my brother. I never did make dad another sweater.
For the record, I have a friend that bought some zephyr and she called it cursed. She gave it to another member of our Snb group and she hated it too. Turns out they both don't like working with lace weight yarn. For me, the finer the yarn the better I like it. I won't knit thicker than DK now. Although in my younger days I never knit finer than worsted. Go figure. I guess your tastes change as you get older. For me I love knitting doilies, table clothes etc. The finest I have knit with though is size 40 cotton. I did try size 100 tatting thread but I couldn't work with it. I think I needed finer needles.
I feel your pain on the lace weight yarn. I'm not yet willing to admit that I dislike it as I was once known to not like US0 needles and now they are my mainstay, so I wont say I'll never have a laceweight FO, but so far it hasn't happened, despite three starts...
I don't have any huge disasters, probably just because I haven't knit any really huge projects. My biggest disappointment was probably my Dublin Bay socks in LL Black Purl that turned out too big. I loved the colors, loved the pattern, should have used smaller needles. I gave them to my larger-footed MIL. I plan to re-knit them for myself, they were my favorite socks I'd knit thus far.
Since I've only been knitting for a few years, and I knit very slowly, I don't have too many spectacular disasters to report. My biggest one is my still-in-progress Kiri shawl, which I swear to Maude is cursed. I can knit it up to a certain row of the pattern repeat, and then something goes wrong and I lose a stitch. Rip back, knit up again (counting all the way), and *yet again* that pesky missing stitch rears its ugly invisible head. (I think I've tinked and reknit five times...) Right now, it's frogged back to the last correct row, waiting for me to have the fortitude and concentration to try again. My EZ percentage sweater is obediently trudging along, but I'm certain Kiri is talking it into misbehaving, too.
Wow! Guess I won't be getting the FPS because I don't like knitting with lace weight yarn either. Used the Knit Picks lace weight yarn doubled after trying a row or two. Seems lately all my knitting adventures have turned to disasters. Nothing ever fits. Dishclothes are starting to sound good.
Sheri in GA
Only one disaster?
As a gesture of pure love from hubby, in no way related to his custom made golf clubs, one Christmas I got a spinning wheel and lessons. Jumping in with all the enthusiasm of a three year old on his first two wheeler, I quickly spun up gargantuan amounts of a brownish/blackish thick and thin yarn complete with little bits of vegetation. What to do with all this great handspun but to make a cardigan - since I was on such a spin the heck with swatching - anyway fast-forward to a sweater you, me, and half of the east coast could fit into. The cure? I was sure that a boiled wool jacket would come out of it. Insert the monster in the washer, hot water and a little detergent later, out comes a thousand pounds of jacket that the Midwest can join us in!
Today, the spinning wheel looks so nice sitting in the corner, the trash man's hernia is healing nicely and my LYS is on speed dial.
OH you really want to know some knitting disaster :) Picking one will be the hard part. I have been fairly good at keeping things under control for the most part, although there are occasions when all heck break lose in our house hold, that is normally when the ball winder, swift and a gorgeous hank of sock yarn are involved. For some reason I am yet to untie the appropriate spot on the skein to start the winding and normally end up getting it from the inside outward (talk about mess). It has taught me patience. Or wait maybe it is the time, I took to unwind 8 skeins of yarn on my swift, to wake up the next day to find them all in hanks again (my 10 year old, though they looked nicer that way, after some one taught her how to twist and tuck the hanks (it reminded her of the braids in her hair).
The reason I would really like to continue your shawl is that, I really wanted to join the knit along, I went to the site, I seen all the beautiful shawls, looked at the my husband, did the doe eye look and asked him if I could PLEASE get the pattern and yarn for this, in return I got a loving glance back, a look towards my "visible stash" and loving, well dear you can get that as long as you finish with what you have first..lol..I deserved it just the day prior I turned down his request for a pc "thing" due to budget restraints...lol...Anyhow I just really thinks its pretty, have always wanted to try lace knitting, and enjoy your stories, and of course who can resist anything the p-man is involved in.
I really admire your willingness to part with it and give it to somebody who really love making lace knitting. I myself really enjoy it and hate to knit with bulky yarn.
My worst experience knitting is a bit long, but I have knitting several sweaters in the past and almost always - when it is finished - it doesn't fit. So more than 5 times I have knitted a large project and ended up giving it away to somebody who perhabs were a bit smaller than me. This should teach me to make a swatch!!
Now I dont knit sweaters anymore - it hurts too much to knit and then just give it away - also my wallet doesn't like the expense. I mostly knit shawls, stoles and socks for the moments. Before Christmas I was knitting a very beautiful shawl- had ordered the yarn in Uruguay and I really enjoyed the thought of using it when I had finished - just till my grand mothers asked if she could buy it, since it was her favorite color, and need I tell, that I couldn't disappoint her. So now she uses it and I can see her joy when she wears it.
Connie
I'm with YOU, bay-bee, on the laceweight hate! I don't have any huge knitting disasters, really, because I have not done much that was too challenging. I've just ripped out my ribby shell, which was pretty much a disaster. But I don't want that friggin' laceweight. Hee. XOXO
Good idea! You cannot let it languish OR torture you. Don't send it to me!!!
Deb -- pictures -- yeah!!!!
Thanks!
I don't think we should spend hours knitting something we don't love. With that said, I avoid knitting disasters like the plague and thus haven't had many. Mostly, I have made some poor yarn choices and do exactly what you are doing, pass it on to someone who will love it.
What a pretty color of blue!
I'm glad you decided to be happier with your knit and stop, rather than be stubborn and slog through something you'll end up hating and never want to see again. I know. I speak from experience.
And yes, I can see your pictures perfectly! Especially the P-man. I still say he needs to come give his auntie La a visit
I see photos now! :D
Beautiful color, Deb!
I see those photos now too.
I'm such a sucker for a contest and I just love laceweight yarn so I've been racking my brain for a story. The only one I can come up with is the sweater I knit last year with yarn that looked so cool that I even designed my own pattern to knit from it. It ended up to be the worst sweater I've ever knit. I don't even want to recycle it. I threw it out this weekend wihtout a tear. Glad to see it go. So that is as disasterous as it gets.
Sometimes we just have to admit the fact we aren't up to something. Yeah, now you'll never have to buy laceweight yarn again!
I'm still going to work on mine, just not in my spirit right now.
you could knit the Forest as a blanket in worsted! It'd be gorgeous!
I've been told many times don't knit what you hate. It's great advice.
My biggest disaster was my attempt at a Mariah sweater. I love that sweater. Everyone was making one so I wanted one too. I went to the yarn shop and was asked by the sales woman if I was sure that I wanted to knit it. She didn't come out and say don't but she did tell me to consider it carefully. I made all the parts and joined them on the circular needle to do the yoke and after 10 sets of decreases I tried it on and cried. The body was too short and narrow but hung too low, the sleeves were easily 4 inches too long and the underarms were at my elbows. Sadly all the knitting was perfect and the cables were stunning. I ripped it out and had a good cry. Eventually the yarn became a top down cardigan which fits great but I still wish I had a Mariah sweater.
Karen
http://nothingbutknit.blog-city.com/
Hooray for you for just saying "Enough already!" My biggest disaster is probably also my proudest accomplishment. Not long after I learned to knit (many, many, many moons ago)--back when Bernat Acrylic yarn was considered the "good stuff", I made a Fisherman's Knit afghan out of one of their booklets. It was 9 individual 5' long panels with different patterns that were to be seamed together and then fringed and ta! da! A beautiful afghan. Now mind you-I'd never done a cable, didn't know seed stitch from rib stitch-Gauge, what's gauge? I jumped in with both feet and got everyone of those panels done and went to sew it together. Hmmm-not one of them was the same length as another. So I did what any sane person would do-I stretched and sewed. Acrylic does not accomodate stretching like real wool does...anyway, still have the afghan. It reminds me not to be afraid to try things I haven't done and the rippling edges have kind of grown on me.
Happy Knitting
Debbi Jones
Tucson, AZ
Your FPS is just beautiful so far, but I can understand your choice to stop. Funny how amazing it feels when you drop an obligation isn't it?
I've never gotton past cast on, though I hold hope. Very nice of you to pass on the yarn, but I don't need it so don't include me in the contest.
- Nancy (knitting wench)
Many knitting disasters but the one that comes to mind is the sweaters I made for my grandsons. Size 2 and 4. Easy to knit. I duplicate stitched Thomas the Tank Engine on each. Seamed effortlessly. Put the buttons on. Couldn't have been easier until the blocking. I decided to block them after finishing and the superwash yarn stretched so much and I couldn't get it back to the correct shape .... or any shape that looked like a little boys sweater. It still brings a tear to my eye. Wwwaaaaa.....
my biggest knitting dissappointment...was my 2nd try at felting...the first one was just a small little coin purse sized bag that i knitted up from Brown sheep's nature's spun....i was sooooo excited with how it came out that i jumped into a bigger felting project right away...i made a huge and i do mean huge bag from nature's spun...i used red, yellow and blue...3 stranded when i binded off i could stand inside the bag and it came up past my knees...i then happily tossed it into the washer...TWICE...it was so thick it wouldn't felt the first time...when i took it out the 2nd time it was stiff as a board and UGLY as sin...the colors grayed out for some reason and the red was more dominate then the other two...but the bag looked like it had a fuzzy spotted sickness...i was soo sad after all the time and yarn it was the ugliest thing i have ever seen....i just tossed it aside....it has now become the cats' favorite sleeping spot! shrugs....i can't even bring myself to take a picture of it...it insults my artistic aesthetics every time i look at it....at least the cat's like it
My biggest knitting disaster was the Anemoi mittens. I had gauge issues, and it started with the stranded ribbing, which made me think I needed to use bigger needles than the project called for. When I ended up it, the mitten was more like an oven mitt. Very sad. I kept going because I had started over three times and I was sick of starting over. Needless to say I did not do the second mitten. A beautiful pattern that I have no desire to take a stab at again.
Laceweight too makes me want to take my eyes out with a needle. But, it is absolutely gorgeous and I hope some lucky, wonderful person wins it!
Doesn't it feel good to be honest about it? Glad you were honest and didn't keep torturing yourself.
My biggest disaster, I thought I would be clever and make a jumper out of cotton. It was the eighties, it was oversized, with lots of cables in double knit. It was stretched out of shape because of the weight of te yarn by the time it was off the needles. Cables need a lot of yarn. Washing it was a nightmare. I were it once or twice. Then it sat in a trunk for years.
Oh, I'm so sorry that you've decided to call it quits, but I understand. (Oh, don't enter me in the contest, please. I have my own 6-tier headstart that has hit a standstill.) Isn't it funny though how we all have our likes and dislikes when it comes to knitting? I love laceweight!
I have to say that my biggest disaster was baby blankets. I knit (long before my cherished DD was ever even a glimmer in my eye,) a blanket for my "hope chest" - it was the first thing I really knit. Lovely pattern out of variegated red heart acrylic. Then, when I was pregnant (and insane,) I not only knit fun-fur scarves for everyone I knew (a fact that makes me blush & recoil with horror when reminded,) I also knit another baby blanket for my baby-to-come. The same pattern. A different shade of the Red Heart acrylic.
So now I have 2 baby blankets that I still have because I can't make myself throw them away - and yet as soon as I gave birth I knew that I would never let that nasty acrylic touch my baby. And I've never willingly knit with acrylic since (with one exception for Knitty's Hallowig.) I just think it feels... squeaky.
But my DD does use the blankets sometimes to throw over chairs and make tents out of. And one of them she took scissors to and cut up a bit. This horrified my husband who thought I would be emotional about the loss.
Hmmm... not so much. :)
I LOVE knitting with laceweight and Zephyr in particular and I would love to take what you've knit and carry on! Enter me in the contest, please :)
Margo
I guessed as much. I had a big knitting disaster. My EZ moebius vest. I loved knitting it, was even quick about it. As soon as it was done I put it on, and - it was horrible! It did not sit well or right. There was something very wrong with it. It took me almost the same time to ripp it as I've been knitting on it, because I've woven in the ends so wonderfully, that I had a hard time finding them.
I was afraid that was going to be your big announcement. I too have struggled with the lace weight yarn, I'm using a single ply silk at 50 wpi. Oh so fine, I think I'm going to need new glasses. However your tips for the nubs and Aero needles have helped a great deal and I'm actually loving the pattern and process now.
Hum, the biggest disappointment would have to be the wonderful Alpaca/Llama spindle spun yarn I purchased. I knit up a beautiful shiny dark brown cardigan. While I was knitting I envisioned several more designs and ordered 40 more skeins of the stuff. Enough for 3 more sweaters and extra to boot! I finished the cardigan then realized each time I wore the thing I was itching my arms/body like crazy. Seems Llama needs to be de-haired and none of this was! I love the sweater so I do wear it, but only with a turtleneck sweater underneath it!!
Knitting disasters, hmmmm. Well, there was the huge amount of yarn I was sold fifteen years ago to knit a large swing coat like one I had picked up in Hong Kong and loved. The yarn shop put the whole thing together and shipped it to me. Well, the yarn, a scratchy tweed, was totally inappropriate, but I knitted away at it anyway. At a certain point, I realized it had no drape, no matter which needles I used, so I frogged it and decided to knit a tabbard. Completed, it might as well have been cardboard. Frogged again, the only thing I can think to do with it is felted clogs, lots and lots of felted clogs.
Is Pumpkin an Exotic?
Hi there!
I've been itching to try laceweight, so I would be glad to have a project that has already been started! Also, I'm in a sock-only phase at the moment that I find difficult to shake!
Of the few knitting disasters I've had, I think this is the worst: years ago I tried my first cardigan, knit from Red Heart(my mother's yarn of choice)in a very nice teal-blue. I was still a novice then, and was proud of my tension and I hadn't made any mistakes....and I read somewhere about blocking. I didn't have a firm grasp on how to block, so I ironed my pieces...or rather, almost melted the first piece flat (ooh acrylic!). Undeterred, I moved on to the last piece, the front band. Would you believe I ran out of yarn with 4 inches of band to go!! So off it went into the closet until 4 years later I found another huge ball of the same colour (no dye lot to match!) The ball joined my sad oversized UFO in the closet, moved to England with me...and as I packed to return to Canada, I realized I would never wear this monstrosity! I closed my eyes and put it in the bin!
anonymous here!
Actually Susan! Had a rpoblem leaving my details, but still want to be in the contest! Trying to leave details again, for the post of 10:03am!
Ah... my worst knitting disaster involved my family and TV time. I was 15 and home knitting in the den while everyone watched the tube. The phone began ringing and no one would get up to answer it. I finally gave the death glare to my brothers and put down my complicated project to go answer the phone. Unfortunately for me I didn't realize that the size 9 knitting needle slipped down in between the sofa cushions. When I stomped back to resume my knitting I threw myself down on the sofa and the cushions compressed down ward and yep - that size nine metal knitting needle shot up and impaled me in the upper back thigh.
Not a pretty sight. I never did finish that sweater.
Yikes PJ, I should knit the FPS FOR YOU just for that story alone :)
See how behind I am? OK, my 1st "wearable" garment was a ribbon tank. Being a little past the scarf stage in my knitting experience, I started this (done on big needles) because I was still a little wary of tiny needles. 5s at the time seemed really small to me. So the tank is done and I have to pick up stitches along the neckline to add the collar and what do I do? Instead of reading to refresh on how to pick up stitches, I plow on. I shoved the needle into the stitches that were there and knitted. So I wound up with a tank that was way too big, yet I couldn't get my head through the neck. The Betties can testify, I brought it to what he called out knitting horror night, thenpromptly threw it away. So much for not swatching and reading up on new techniques.
The first sweater I ever knit out of "expensive" yarn was a disaster. I didn't do a swatch or check gauge. I just knit away. The sweater was at least 3x too big. Still stuck in the bag, even though the yarn would make something really nice. I learned that swatches have a purpose and varigated yarn is pretty, but doesn't always look good knit up.
Knitting disappointments, eh? I think my largest to date is my first (and only finished) pair of socks. I knit them toe up, and in addition to the wonkiest gussets ever, they ended up too small around the leg. I couldn't even get them on my foot. Pair number two is proving much more successful, but I'm uncertain if socks and I will ever be more than acquaintances!
Lace, however, is my friend. *wink*
I'm not sure if this counts as a knitting disaster but I lost my first attempt at sock knitting. Actually, I left it on an airplane. Full story here:
http://tresbonbabble.blogspot.com/2005/04/98-socks-are-finished.html
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